A Wedding For Julia

A Wedding for Julia
(Pebble Creek Amish Series)
Vannetta Chapman
(Harvest House Publishers
ISBN: 978-0736946162
July 2013/352 pages/$13.99
A Wedding for Julia, the third book in a romantic series from popular author Vannetta Chapman, takes a last look at the Amish community of Pebble Creek and the kind, caring people there. As they face challenges from the English world, they come together to reach out to their non-Amish neighbors while still preserving their cherished Plain ways.

Julia Beechy is so stunned, she can hardly breathe. Her mother's announcement that she must either marry or move from the family home upon her mother's imminent death catches Julia by surprise. How can she leave the only home she has ever known? What about her dream of opening her own Plain café?

When Caleb Zook offers support, comfort, and a solution, Julia is afraid to accept it. Can she marry someone she barely knows? Is it the right thing to do? Is this God's plan for her future?

Caleb thought his time for marrying was long past, but he feels a stirring in his heart he cannot shake for this beautiful, forlorn woman. Amid the circumstances of this life-altering decision, the people of Pebble Creek weather the worst storm to hit Wisconsin in the last hundred years. Where will Julia and Caleb be on the other side of it?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Vannetta Chapman has published more than 100 articles in Christian family magazines. She discovered her love for the Amish while researching her grandfather’s birthplace in Albion, Pennsylvania. Vannetta is a multi-award-winning member of Romance Writers of America. She was a teacher for 15 years and currently resides in the Texas Hill country. Her first two inspirational novels—A Simple Amish Christmas and Falling to Pieces—were Christian Book Distributors bestsellers.

Visit the author's website.

MY THOUGHTS:

This is the final book in this trilogy but it read so well as a stand-alone that I didn't connect until I finished that I had read the first one, A Promise for Miriam (reviewed here), last year. While most Amish novels focus on couples marrying in their late teens and early twenties, Julia is in her mid-thirties and Caleb is forty. I enjoyed seeing Julia's love and devotion to her mamm, Ada, although the ultimatum that Julia must either marry or move several states away to live with relatives upon her mother's death was a bit hard to wrap my mind around as an Englischer! The variety of characters, including a rebellious Amish seventeen-year-old girl, an English family endeavoring to adapt to the simple lifestyle, and the infirm Ada who drifts in and out of dementia, makes this a charming story with a warmth that made me feel as if I were sitting in Julia's new cafe enjoying a slice of her Apple-Cinnamon Pie! If you enjoy Amish fiction, you'll want to visit Pebble Creek and enjoy A Wedding for Julia.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book from Harvest House Publishers as part of the FIRST Wild Card Tour.. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”